No Ordinary Love - G.Callen NCIS L.A

Chapter 7

Coming back from an extremely long case, Callen finally dropped in after three weeks. He'd kept her up to date, sort of, about how he wouldn't be in for a while, because he couldn't say how long this case was going to keep him occupied. Having wrapped it two days earlier, and rushing through his rapport, he took a car straight from the airport to the café. Thankfully, Hetty had given them the next two days off, so he didn't have to get back to the office until after the weekend.

Her face lit up when she saw him. "Grisha!"

Taking the few strides to where she was standing, he wrapped her in his arms for a short, tight hug. "Hey, Dee."

"Hi," she breathed, hugging him back. "Are you okay?"

He nodded. "I'm alright."

Deja searched his eyes. He looked tired, but seemed to be in one piece. "Adrenaline and coffee, right?"

"There was no herbal tea available where I was," he said.

"I'm not asking. You want anything?"

"A few hours of sleep." He was yawning thinking about it. "But tea would be lovely, too."

Sam, and especially Deeks had teased him endlessly during the past weeks. They had finally found out that he was not drinking coffee anymore, and there was no Deja or Deja's tea in the middle of the Sahara. So he made due with coffee that tasted like stale water, and lived on whatever chow they were offering. But he was so ready for a home cooked meal.

Deja rounded the bar and busied herself with his tea. "You want some eggs and toast? Or did you already have breakfast?"

He shook his head. "No, no breakfast. Eggs would be great."

She put the order through to the kitchen and told Jess that she was going to sit with him for a moment. "Come on, let's take your table."

His table. It didn't feel like his, but at least there was something here that reminded them of him, for which he felt grateful. It was nice to know there was someone thinking of him while he was away.

"How are things here?"

She smiled. "Everything is fine. It's been busy." She stirred in her own cup. "We decided to close one evening during the week, to catch up on paperwork and have an evening to breathe."

"What am I going to do for dinner on that day?" It was out of his mouth before he realized it.

Deja laughed. "See, your first reaction is not: great Dee, must be nice to have an extra night off. No, you are worried about you." She shoved his shoulder. "We can finally start those cooking lessons we've been talking about."

Callen swallowed his sip, trying to disguise the fact that he was actually excited about that idea. And not for the cooking, but for the fact that he could spend more time with her. "Are you sure? I can totally understand if the extra night off is extremely appealing. You don't have to spend it with me."

That argument was easily rebuffed. "I want to."

Okay. He wanted to, as well. He was actually excited to try and do something new. He'd have to warn her though. "I might not be able to get there every week."

"I know," Deja answered. "We'll see how the day goes, and you can always text me if you're not going to make it. Plenty of ingredients in the pantry, so we can always whip up something super simple."

Her eyes were dancing, and she mesmerized him once again. He'd never had this with anyone before, and the feeling was new and different and one he liked. "All right. It's a date."

"Good."

Jess came to bring his eggs, winked at Deja and returned to tend to other customers. Callen took a bite of his breakfast and closed his eyes, savoring the flavors and the fact that he was, in fact, eating real eggs.

Deja looked at him. She truly liked him. There was something in his eyes that had drawn her in, and that was, for some reason, not letting her go. She'd found that she'd missed his company. She was so used to seeing him every day that suddenly not seeing him for a while, made her all jittery. He'd kept her up-to-date whenever he could, and she was getting used to him having an erratic schedule. But him not being there for twenty-five days was not something she was used to anymore, and she found that she'd missed his presence.

Callen lifted his eyes to meet hers. He could read it. "I can't tell you anything, Dee," he said. "Only that everything went well and that I'm back in one piece, as you can see. And that I've missed you." He was going to say that he'd missed this: the food, the atmosphere, the fact that he could walk in and be himself. He hadn't planned on saying that he'd missed her, specifically.

She took his hand and squeezed it. "I've missed you, too."

His face broke out in a grin. "Yeah?"

Again, she jabbed his shoulder. "I've gotten used to you going with me to the farmers market, and getting in here every day. So, when your crazy schedule takes you away for three whole weeks, of course I miss you. Even if it's just because I have to carry my own groceries." But it was more than that, and they both knew it.

Callen started yawning once his breakfast was gone. Deja patted his hand. "You should get some sleep."

He agreed, but didn't want to move. "I should. Not sure if I'm able to drive in this condition, though."

"Take a cab, leave the car here, come back tonight to pick it up." She was tempted to offer him her own bed upstairs, but that was probably not a good idea. Not yet, anyway.

"What's on the menu tonight?"

"Something Italian that Lindy decided on. I honestly haven't looked at it yet. I don't have to worry about it, anyway."

"You off tonight?"

She nodded. "We have a new girl around now. Her name's Keira, she's a college student, fun, hard-working girl. So yeah, I have a night off."

"All right." Again, he yawned as Deja called him a cab. "Sorry to cut this short. We wrapped everything up and came in with the red eye and since I barely sleep on planes, it's been almost 60 hours without sleep."

Deja understood. "Don't worry about it. Get some sleep, I'll see you tonight."

When his cab arrived, he hugged her again and kissed her cheek. "See you tonight."

"Be careful. Sweet dreams."

As Callen fought to keep his eyes open during the cab ride, he tried not to revel in the fact that she fit perfectly under his chin. The fact that she'd missed him was good. It was more than he could've hoped for. He better not screw this up.